Frank Darabont has revealed that forthcoming AMC zombie drama The Walking Dead was inspired by the films of George Romero.

Romero has released a number of movies in the zombie genre, beginning with 1968's Night of the Living Dead. His most recent effort was the 2009 film Survival of the Dead.

"We’re throwing back to the good old days," Darabont told SFX. "We’re in a drooling, lumbering George Romero mindset on [The Walking Dead]."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

However, he confirmed that unlike Romero's slow, lumbering undead, the zombies in the AMC series would be able to run.

"As far as zombie speed is concerned of course they can run!" he said. "But we’ll limit it to when they are in a frenzy."

He added: "You can’t just have zombies shuffling along like the mummy."

The showrunner also revealed that the series would avoid the zombie-related social commentary common in Romero's films.

"To me, those zombie metaphors have been covered by other filmmakers," he explained. "They’ve laid those metaphors out through the decades, particularly George Romero. I don’t know if I can bring anything new to the zombie metaphor, so my focus is the human part of the story."